SMITHFIELD, R.I. — A Smithfield parent is circulating a petition asking the School Committee to overturn the Common Core, a set of academic standards that has become a lightning rod for critics.

SMITHFIELD, R.I. — A Smithfield parent is circulating a petition asking the School Committee to overturn the Common Core, a set of academic standards that has become a lightning rod for critics from both ends of the political spectrum.

The Common Core is not a curriculum. It identifies what skills should be mastered at certain grade levels. The standards grew out of a growing fear that the United States was being left behind by other nations in the developed world, particularly in math and science.

The National Governors Association in 2009 assembled a group of educators who ultimately developed standards in math and science. The Obama administration encouraged states to adopt the standards as part of its lucrative Race to the Top grants program, of which Rhode Island received $75 million.

Rema Tomka, a mother of three children, all of whom are being home-schooled, started the Smithfield petition, which has drawn more than 100 signatures as of early Tuesday afternoon.

Tomka’s petition echoes many of the objections voiced by critics on the political left and right.

It says that the standards reflect the “priorities of corporate education reformers” such as the Gates and Broad Foundations, a criticism rebuffed by the state Department of Education. The department says it shared the standards with local teachers and that several local educators participated on the committee that reviewed the standards.

The petition also says that the standards were adopted without the approval of the Smithfield School Committee but the education department says that this responsibility resides at the state, not the local, level.

Tomka said the math standards, especially in high school, are not as rigorous as international standards. She cited a math specialist, James Milgram, who has openly criticized the Common Core and who refused to sign off on the math standards when he served on the validation committee.

Asked why she is leading the opposition even though her children are home-schooled, Tomka said, “I’m a taxpayer. We’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on professional development, $300,000 on laptops to take the test. This is an unfunded mandate and it’s costing me money.”

Opposition to the Common Core has popped up in several Rhode Island towns, including Barrington, Tiverton and Cumberland. A Barrington school board member, Scott Fuller, has started a Facebook page, Collapse the Core.

Nationally, support for the Common Core and its standardized tests have begun to fragment. In 2010, 45 states adopted the standards. Two years later, they had signed up for one of two federally funded multistate groups charged with developing online tests that would match the standards.

Today, 36 states have stayed with the Common Core and fewer than half of the original states will move forward with the tests next year, according to the Hechinger Report, a nonprofit newsroom focused on education issues.